Happy New Year from Joy of Wine Journeys
Vintner Varietals: Winemakers We Love
A highlight of our journey through French wine country, new this year, was our visit to the vineyards and cellars of Champagne Philippe Gonet. The brother-and-sister team of Pierre and Chantal Gonet is the seventh generation of the family to devote themselves to producing world class champagnes made from the estate’s prized chardonnay grapes.
Named the Winegrower of the Year in the 2024 Hachette Wine Guide, the Gonet legacy began in 1830, when their forebears founded the house in Vertus, moving in 1910 to the heart of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger in Épernay. This is a Grand Cru village built on an ancient sea-bed with distinctively chalky, limestone-rich soil, and arguably the best wines of the Champagne region are produced here (Gonet’s neighbors are the iconic Salon and Clos de Mesnil).
The Gonet siblings are obsessed with mining the nuances of this terroir. Their techniques—farming sustainably, hand-picking the grapes and sorting them plot-by-plot, slow-pressing them in the traditional vertical press of Champagne, and resting the wines a minimum of two years on their lees—coax intense finesse, delicate precision, and maximum pleasure from their wines.
Visiting their cellar, carved deep into the limestone and dating back to 1783, was an extraordinary experience we look forward to sharing with our future guests!
Cultural Terroir: Places We Love
Explore The Historic Caves of Champagne
The landscape of the Champagne region is pastoral, bucolic, like the countryside in a fairytale, with quaint villages and vineyards on verdant hillsides. But beneath all that sunlit splendor lies another world, also dreamlike—an underground labyrinth of hundreds of kilometers of white-walled tunnels and vast caves. And here’s the really dreamy part: these hidden chambers house millions of bottles of the best champagne in the world.
The caverns began as chalk quarries dug by the Romans as early as 8o A.D.. In the 17th century, emerging Champagne houses turned to these naturally climate-controlled spaces, with their low humidity, steady 50-55°F temperature, and absence of sunlight, to age their wines. Since then, the old quarries have been further excavated and expanded, and now hold racks of champagne as far as the eye can see within their cool chalk walls. (They were also used as shelters for Champenois locals during both world wars, who constructed false walls in the caves to hide their wine.)
Like our visit to the cellars of Philippe Gonet in Épernay, you can tour many iconic champagne producers in Reims and Épernay and marvel for yourself at the scope of their bone-white, cathedral-like cellars. The Champagne caves are so unique and integral to the past (and present) of this region’s wine production that, in 2015, they were named part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Coteaux, Maisons, et Caves (hillsides, houses, and cellars) de Champagne. Standing in the midst of the expansive, subterranean, champagne-lined halls, you may have to pinch yourself to be sure you’re not dreaming.
Wine Key: Insights We Love
How To Best Store Your Champagne
Given its ability to make any moment feel more momentous, we recommend keeping a few bottles of champagne on hand, ready to pop at a party or a romantic dinner. However, improper storage of those bottles can cause your celebration to fall flat. The basics of wine storage are simple: Lay your bottles on their sides in a cool, dark place. If you remember none of the following details, just remember that.
Laying the bottles on their sides helps prevent the corks from drying out. (A dried-out cork can leave room for air and bacteria to enter the bottle and spoil the wine.) Cool temperatures in the area of 55°F are ideal, but almost more important is avoiding wide fluctuations in temperature, as this can create off-flavors and a change in the texture of the bubbles. Light, likewise, is an enemy to aging wine, as UV rays and even fluorescent lighting can degrade the aromatics and flavor.
Humidity is another factor to consider; dry air can lead to a dry cork, so storage in 60-80% humidity is ideal. So, again, lay your bottles on their sides in a cool, dark (okay, we’ll add humid) place.But of course, as in all things wine, there is nuance.
The first thing to know is that most champagne is aged to perfection by the producer under precise conditions. By the time it reaches your hands, it’s ready to drink. There are some bottles, though, that can stand up to years or even decades of at-home aging. So let’s look at various scenarios for your bottles.
If the bubbly you purchased is going to be consumed within three or four days, upright in the fridge is perfectly fine. It will be chilled to the perfect drinking temperature and kept away from light. However, much longer than that in the refrigerator could dry out the cork.
For storage up to a month, keep your bottles horizontal in a dark area with a stable, cool temperature (away from heating vents), like a chilly basement or pantry.
If you’d like to age your champagne for longer (magnum bottles are well-suited to aging, given that the ratio of oxygen to wine slows the aging process), and you don’t have a dedicated, climate-controlled cellar, consider investing in a wine fridge. The appliance will control for all of the essential factors we’ve discussed, maintaining the ideal darkness, temperature, and humidity to maximize the life of your champagne.
Pairings: Recipes We Love
Holiday Appetizers to Pair with Champagne
Champagne notoriously plays well with most food; as long as the bottle and the bites are both delicious, it’s hard to go very wrong. But we think what pairs the very best with bubbly matches its essence—festive, playful, elegant, and distinct. For an hors d’oeuvre in that spirit, we’ve combined two classic and irresistible French starters: gougères and fromage fort. Gougères are puffs of pâte à choux, the same dough used for eclairs, made savory with the addition of gruyere cheese (we’ve also added chives for an oniony zip).
The gougères can be served unfilled, warm from the oven, and are show-stoppers in their own right. Fromage fort (literally, strong cheese) is a spread traditionally made from leftover scraps of cheese and a glug of wine, sometimes with the addition of butter, garlic, or herbs. It is divine slathered onto crackers or spread thickly on toast and broiled. Here we add a little cream to thin the mixture enough to pipe into the hollow centers of the gougères. The result is a crispy, creamy, deeply savory, vaguely boozy bombshell that both elevates and is elevated by your next sip of champagne.
Gougères with Fromage Fort
- SERVES: Makes 24 Gougères
*Note: The fromage fort is best when made with a mixture of hard and soft cheeses. Gruyere, brie, aged cheddar, parmesan, camembert, even blue cheese (in a small amount) work well. The texture will change based on the mix of cheeses you use, so the amount of cream needed in the recipe will vary.
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE GOUGÈRES
- ½ cup milk (any percentage)
- ½ cup water
- 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon freeze-dried chives (optional)
- 4 large eggs
- 4 ounces gruyere cheese, very finely grated (as on the smallest holes of a cheese grater or Microplane), divided
- Nonstick cooking spray
FOR THE FROMAGE FORT
- 8 ounces mixed cheeses, rinds removed, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (*See note above)
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream, plus more as needed
- 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 small garlic clove, peeled and coarsely chopped
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Salt
METHOD
MAKE THE GOUGÈRES:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, water, butter, and salt. Bring just to a boil over high heat, stirring to ensure the butter is melted as the mixture reaches a boil.
- Remove from heat and immediately sift in the flour. Return the pan to medium-high heat and stir vigorously and constantly with a wooden spoon or stiff rubber spatula to fully incorporate the flour, leaving no lumps or pockets of flour remaining. The mixture will be a soft dough at this point.
- Continue to cook, mashing and moving the dough around the pan constantly, until a thick skin forms on the bottom and sides of the pan, about 1 minute 30 seconds.
- Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the chives, if using, and mix on low speed for about 2 minutes to release steam and allow the dough to cool somewhat. The bottom of the bowl should feel warm, not hot, to the touch.
- Add one egg and slowly increase the speed to medium, allowing the egg to incorporate into the dough completely. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Repeat with each remaining egg, scraping down the bowl between each addition. The batter will be thick, smooth, and shiny.
- Setting aside about ¼ cup (1/4 ounce) of the gruyere for topping, add the remaining gruyere to the batter, mixing until fully incorporated.
- Scrape the batter into a pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch tip (or cut neatly into a ½-inch opening).
- On the parchment-lined sheet pans, pipe the batter into golf ball-sized mounds, leaving about two inches between each. You will have enough batter for about 24 gougères.
- Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray and use your finger to smooth the pointed tops. Sprinkle with the remaining gruyere and gently press to ensure the cheese adheres.
- Transfer to the preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the gougères are puffed, deeply golden on the bottoms, and feel hollow when lifted. Turn off the oven, crack the oven door, and leave the gougères inside to cool for 30 minutes.
MAKE THE FROMAGE FORT (makes about 1 1/3 cup):
- Add the cheeses, wine, three tablespoons of cream, butter, garlic, and a pinch of black pepper to the bowl of a food processor and process until very smooth, scraping down the bowl occasionally.
- The texture should be loose enough to pipe but still thick enough to spread, slightly looser than whipped cream cheese. If it is too stiff, add more cream one tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency.
- Taste and add salt if necessary; depending on the saltiness of the cheeses you’ve used, you may not need to add any. Add more pepper to taste, and process until incorporated.
- Scrape the fromage fort into a pastry bag fitted with a ¼-inch tip.
FILL THE GOUGÈRES:
You can fill the gougères just after their 30-minute cooling in the oven, or once they have cooled completely. Using the tip of the fromage-filled pastry bag, poke a small hole in the bottom of the gougère. Squeezing slowly, pipe the fromage fort into the hollow center of the gougère. (You will not use all of the fromage fort to fill the gougères. Save the remainder for crackers or toast, or pipe directly into your mouth.) Serve warm or at room-temperature.
The unfilled gougères can be made the day ahead and refrigerated, or frozen for longer storage, and refreshed in a 350ºF oven. The fromage fort can be made in advance and refrigerated for up to a week; however, it will stiffen in the refrigerator and will need to be brought to room temperature and loosened with extra cream to return it to the proper consistency for filling.
ENJOY!
New Growth: Joy Of Wine News We Love
Exciting New Journeys For 2025 & 2026
We’ve only recently returned home after a busy and memorable 2024 tour season in Europe. We led three incredible groups through Italy, experiencing together the excitement of harvest time in the vineyards and the fleeting pleasures of white truffle season. We also launched our inaugural tour through France’s wine country, and it was so rewarding and such a true pleasure to enjoy the adventure with many of our favorite past guests. We could not be more excited to share the unbelievable beauty and extraordinary epicurean experiences with more of you in the future!
Dreaming of visiting French Wine Country in 2025? We currently have only 2 rooms left available in 2025!
For those of you that have already traveled with us to Italy and France here is a fun idea for 2025…Adam & I have been working over the last few months with a friend in Basque, Spain to finalize an unforgettable 8-day itinerary. Guests will arrival into Madrid (MAD) Airport and depart from Bilbao (BIO) Airport. We will eat and drink our way through La Rioja, San Sebastián, and Bilbao. This is not an official Joy of Wine Journey, but we have helped curated the hotels, itinerary and wine selection throughout the tour. Adam & I will not be hosting this trip, but we will be traveling as guests. Dates are June 21-27th. Please let me know if you are interested in pricing and booking details. (6 rooms left available for 2025)
